The Host

A family comedy (perhaps even a grotesque), a melodrama, a horror, a monster movie and an anti-imperialist parable that has designs on America and its "mutagenic" Korean heritage. A brilliant alternation of moods, tempo and atmosphere, precise parallel storytelling, deliberate sneering at Hollywood clichés and flying between a literal film about a monster and a monster-symbol / bearer of a mysterious virus that serves to unleash fear and control citizens with marvelous mutants in hazmat suits. The only way not to go crazy from it is to get carried away by it. Bong Joon-ho is strong in this type of freestyle - and the film is not chaotic or unbelievable for even a moment. Mannerist yes, but the question is to what extent one should take the conclusion deadly seriously. (07/09/2013)

Great satisfaction. Personally, lately I've been on a kaiju wave so I'm glad I got to see this film during this period. It's fun, it defies the genre, but at the same time it can be action-packed and, most importantly, really gritty. I was incredibly surprised by the special effects, which are incredibly well-done, and the monster truly looks like it's there. I had a great time. (04/08/2015)

I expected a lot of things after Parasite, but I still couldn’t imagine such a great combination of a monster movie that balks at nothing (the carnage!), a satire that bites like a mutant giant fish, a compelling drama, a black comedy, and a pure unadulterated horror movie. It's a funny, but mostly sly film. Funny and cunning in a slightly different way every time. (02/22/2020)

An exemplary game with the viewer, fortunately in the good sense of the word. The events around the slightly funny fish monster are merely the trigger for very clever and rightly black-humoured social criticism, which does not fight with purely horror and disturbing moments at all; on the contrary, it locks all motives into a precisely built and original framework. The logic is often flawed, and it must not be taken as seriously as it obviously wants to be, but the direction is simply excellent, methodically switching the perspectives of the four key players, often leaving little room for guessing what's in store in the next scene or shot, and manages to get a lot of quality genre juice out of even the bare minimum (whether through wit on the surface of the comedy or effective jump-scares and subjective viewpoints in the mutant horror scenes). After a long time, a nice Asian surprise, such convention-defying yet easy to grasp and entertaining stuff is hard to find in Hollywood. (06/07/2017)

I don't understand how the same person who can make films that are on the edge of perfection can then come up with a dud like this. I fear there was a lot of work behind it, but I do not at all see why something like this had to be made. And that it got such a huge following? It's a mystery. For me, an almost unwatchable film. Barely 1 star. (03/17/2020)